Lose category and forums after forumcache updates

[bdjncox]

Hopefully I can explain this accurately. I know this has to do with a hack, but please read on before telling me to post it to vbulletin.org which I have done as well.

Still running Vb 3.03 on PHP 4.3.10

While attempting to add the "Sponsored by" hack to the forumhome categories, I ran into a slight problem. I was manually changing the values of the new columns added to the forum table (sponsorimg, sponsorurl and sponsorname) but nothing was showing up on the forum after I did that. It was still showing old information from when I still using the vb2 version of this hack.

After digging around, I was pretty sure that the problem was that my forumcache was not updated. OK, here's where I was a little stupid. I copied the value of that column over to a text file as a backup and then erased the value in the db. My thinking was that it would rebuild the cache. Well, as you probably know, it didn't. The forum was hosed as it wasn't finding any posts to display. So I quickly copied and pasted the value that I had save in a text file back into the forumcache column in the db. Fortunately, everything came back as it should.

Here's where I now run into a problem. Anytime I update the forums (presumably to update the forumcache) I lose an entire category and all the forums under that category. Its gone on the admin forum manager page and gone to the users. If I go back into the forumcache and put back in that old information, it comes back.

I know this was brought on as a result of a hack so I've posted this at vbulletin.org but since this seems to be directly related to the forumcache value, I'm posting it here as well hoping someone has an idea what has happened here.

[Jake Bunce]

When displaying forums on the front-end, vBulletin reads from the cache. You can update your forum cache by running this counter:

Admin CP -> Import & Maintenance -> Update Counters -> Update Forum Information

As for your specific problem, I don't know what could be causing it. The hacks could very well be responsible. Try removing any related hacks... this is what we would do if we had to troubleshoot the problem.

[bdjncox]

thanks for the suggestion - I don't think the hack has anything to do with it as it simply added 3 columns to the forum table. I removed the template edit to the forumhome template. I think the problem is when I deleted the forumcache and then replaced it with the backup.

For some reason, when I do like you described above, I still lose an entire category and 3 forums from the display and from my admin forum manager.

Only when I paste the original forumcache back into the db, do they return.

[Jake Bunce]

That means your forum records are not consistent with your forum cache. The forum records can rebuild a damaged cache, but there is no feature to rebuild damaged forum records from the cache... that would require a custom script. You might try posting on www.vbulletin.org about this.